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"The trouble with too much genre SF is that it's so obviously the product of the conscious mind."
- William Gibson
 |
| Solid Power | ||
| A concentrated form of easily accessed energy to supply any need. |
| "...I'll tell you this - Vliet's fortune isn't in money. I learned that before I came here. It's in 'solid power'."
"Solid power" was, he knew, the most super-valuable substance in the solar system. For it wasn't really a substance at all, but compressed energy "frozen" by temporary transformation into artificial atoms. Trillions of units of power could be compressed thus into an inch-square cube of what looked like blue-white ice. And a suitable transformer would, when desired, turn it back into almost limitless power. "... Vliet has at least ten cubes of it." Kruppa was saying. "Whew!" Crane whistled softly. "The stuff's worth a million Earth dollars a cube." |
| Technovelgy from Revolt on the Tenth World,
by Edmond Hamilton. Published by Amazing Stories in 1940 Additional resources -
|
Here's how it works when hooked up:
Inside this pump-like object was the hastily assembled electrical apparatus which started the disintegration of "solid power' back into pure energy, by smashing one of its artificial pseudoatoms, the process being self-continuing thenceforward until damped out.
The thing they had partially built resembled outwardly a stock pump whose spout pointed toward the stockade, and atop which was a broad, round hopper for the supply of carbon required as a chemical "governor" of the process.
Compare to the shipstones from Friday (1982) by Robert Heinlein and the kink springs from The Calorie Man (2005), by Paolo Bacigalupi.
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Tech news articles related to Revolt on the Tenth World
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Solid Power-related
news articles:
- NDB Nuclear Waste Battery Lasts A Lifetime
- Nuclear Batteries May Pack Inner Punch
| Wearable Energy Harvester |
| Video Manicuring ala Schismatrix |
| Tailsitter Drone Aircraft For SAR |
| Iron Beam Laser Under Development To Shoot Down Missiles With Lasers |
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'... he had tightened the chest to gain maximum pumping action from the motion of breathing.'
'...a prayer wheel swung into view and began spinning at a furious pace.'
'And are all the people willing to be governed by a machine?'
'It's an old model,' Rawlins said. 'I'm not sure what to do.'
'the robot-boss was busy at the lip of the new lode instructing and egging the men on to greater speed...'
'He rode the bike with an intense lack of physical grace...'
